1857 Secession

Christian Reformed Church in North America
Official Logo of the Christian Reformed Church
Abbreviation	CRCNA or CRC
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Evangelical Calvinist
Theology	Reformed
Polity	Modified-Presbyterian
Region	United States, Canada
Headquarters	Grand Rapids, Michigan and Burlington, Ontario
Origin	1857 Holland, Michigan
Separated from	Founded by Dutch immigrants; split from the Reformed Church in America
Separations	1924–26 Protestant Reformed Churches; 1988 Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches; 1996 United Reformed Churches in North America
Congregations	1,090 (2015)
Members	235,921
Official website	www.crcna.org

The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA or CRC) is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed churches of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Dutch immigrants who left the Reformed Church in America in 1857 and is theologically Calvinist.

The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) split from the Reformed Church in America (then known as the Dutch Reformed Church) in an 1857 secession, which was in part the result of a theological dispute that originated in the Netherlands.

In 1857 four churches with about 130 families (about 10 percent of the Dutch immigrant church members in West Michigan at the time) seceded. In March, the Noordeloos church of the Classis of Holland left the Reformed Church in America. On March 19, some members of Second Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, organized a church that became First CRC, Grand Rapids, Michigan. On April 8, churches in Graafschap and Polkton also left the Classis of Holland. Two ministers, Koene VanDen Bosch and Hendrik Klijn, joined the separatists, although Klijn returned to the Reformed Church six months later.

The new denomination that formed from this secession was led by elders and ministers from the churches in the northern Netherlands that had organized after the 1834 secession in the Netherlands, although members of the new denomination came from all parts of the Netherlands. The reasons given for leaving the Reformed Church were the use of hymns (versus only Psalms) during worship, allowing free access to communion, lax interpretation of grace, and failure to provide catechetical instruction to young people.

For the two years the denomination had no corporate name. In 1859 Holland Reformed Church (Hollandsche Gerformeerde Kerk) was adopted, which was changed to Free Dutch Reformed Church (no record of a Dutch translation) in 1861. Two years later True Dutch Reformed Church (Ware Hollandsche Gerformeerde Kerk) was approved which was changed to Holland Christian Reformed Church (Hollandsche Christelijke Gerformeerde Kerk) in 1880. In 1894 congregations also could use Christian Reformed Church (Christelijke Gerformeerde Kerk) as well. The full adoption of Christian Reformed Church came in 1904, which became Christian Reformed Church in North America in 1974.